Groomsday Blog

Sunday, October 26, 2014

A honeymoon will be an unforgettable trip wherever you spend
it. And just like any other trips, there
are a lot of possibilities that it might go wrong. So make an effort to plan
your honeymoon just as you have thoroughly planned every detail of your
wedding. It does not have to be flawless just as long as you have a wonderful
memory to cherish forever.

Read on for more tips
on traveling for your honeymoon.

1.Plan ahead of
time. It is best to plan sooner. This will allow you to pick the best location
that best fits your budget. Avoid the inconvenience of leaving something behind
like an important document. A suited wardrobe is also a must.

2.Geography
matters. A factor you should also consider is your location and the location of
your destination. If you only have less than a week to spend for your
honeymoon, an exotic island abroad like Maldives is probably not an ideal
destination. Some locations will require long flights and take over a day of
traveling time. You will also have to adjust with the time difference.

3.How much will
you be spending? Budget is also a very important factor. How much are you
willing to spend? If you have a tight budget, you may search for places,
resorts and hotels beforehand that will fit your budget. Airline fares also
play a major role.If you regularly
travel, save your mileage and use the accumulated mile points.

4.When are you
leaving? You may not want leave early in the morning. Or the month of your
wedding date will most likely affect your choice of destination. There are
places affected with rains or tropical storms during a particular season. You
absolutely do not want to spend your week at a resort without enjoying the sun.

5.What type of
honeymoon do you both want? What honeymoon experience do you want to have? Do
you want it to be an adventure? A relaxation? Or more of a tour? Do you want to
spend it at a resort? In a historic place? Or in a romantic city? Communication
is very important. Writing down your list of desired destinations then
comparing it with each other will surely be a great help.

6.What kind of
resort or hotel are you looking for? Some resorts and hotels offer different
all-inclusive honeymoon packages for a certain amount or offer complimentary
services upon booking like a free romantic dinner, spa massages and breakfast
in beds.

7.When do I have
to pay? Ask your travel agent. Payments may vary depending on the honeymoon
package you have chosen. Airlines require payments for airline tickets within
24 hours after making a reservation.

8.Do I need a
VISA? Some destinations may require a VISA. Make inquiries first and get
assistance from a travel professional in obtaining a VISA if you should need
one. Another important thing, there are countries that require passports that
are valid six months after entering their country.

9.Should I need to
get a vaccine? Consult with your doctor. Traveling to exotic countries may
require you to get a vaccine before the trip. The least you want is contacting
some type of disease.

10.Should I get
insurance? There are many possible reasons that might lead you to cancel your
trip, return earlier than planned or seek medical treatment while on your
honeymoon. Protect your travel investment by getting travel insurance. Getting
one will also provide you the peace of mind and will surely come handy in times
of need.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

So there you are dodgy pellets of paint,
laughing hysterically and wondering why you’ve never tried this before.

Every groom’s last days of freedom
should be something to remember and choosing your best man can have a huge
impact on your bachelor party. Not to mention the big day itself.

Picking your Best Man is a difficult
task. You’ve worked through a (very) shortlist of those least likely to
embarrass you on the day. Also you have to weigh up the considerations of who
can not only give you a bachelor party to remember but also won’t give you one
you wish you could forget. You don’t want to wake up 30 miles out in the Nevada
Desert with “Big John Was Here” tattooed on your buttocks dressed in only your
socks and a Burger King napkin.

But spare some thought for your Best Man
too. It’s a difficult task, not only does he have to organise your last days of
freedom with military precision, make sure you are prepared for the big day,
not lose the rings, or let you lose your cool. He has to deliver that speech.
The comedy roast that will delight but not offend all those attending your big
day. That will entertain and inform every one of the crazy guy you were and the
great husband you’re going to be. It’s a lot of pressure and he might need a
little guidance.

You’re already struggling to keep your
head above water just trying to keep the bride-to-be from meltdown every time a
decision has to be made or supplier doesn’t meet her exacting demands so steer
him in the direction of some considered and informed advice while you
concentrate on keeping the bride calm collected and just this side of sane.

So the best advice we can give when
picking your Best Man is to think of all your closest friends in a line up,
which one do you think will make you laugh hardest during his speech? Who would
you most want to turn to when the wedding plans are starting to go a little bit
crazy? And who would you most want beside you when the paintball pellets start
flying?

And if you do end up in Vegas for your
bachelor party…. Keep an eye out for “Big John”.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Normally, we speak the phrase wedding
trends and the Grooms in the area flee, screeching like small girls and
tearing out their hair. We feel you. Planning a wedding would be the perfect
way to get political prisoners and terrorists to talk, if it didn’t take
several lifetimes (estimated; wedding planning has a time dilation effect
similar to a black hole’s Event Horizon) to get through. But not all wedding
trends were invented in the offices of various chick-centric magazines – some
were invented in the offices of guy-centric magazines, and some of these
new trends we actually approve of.

The best one we’ve heard so far is simple
in its audacity: The Reception Lounge.

The Reception Lounge is hot in 2013, and if
you’re a Groom theoretically involved in the planning of your wedding, we’d
strongly suggest you use every bit of your political capital to get one
included in your wedding. Don’t worry about the future – you were never going
to use that capital anyway, be honest, and at least this way your wedding gets
to be epic in ways that don’t involve her dress, the bridesmaids dresses, or anyone
dresses.

The Reception lounge is basically a
bar/club area set up away from the dance floor and tables. You stock a bar, get
some comfy chairs and maybe some tables, and if you’re going all out get a
bartender and some waiters/waitresses. Different music and a different vibe, a
casual, quieter place to go where you won’t be pressured into any Chicken
Dances or conga lines. But the best way to think of the Reception Lounge is
that it your Shadow Reception. You get to hold the reception you want
inside your Bride’s mainstream reception. It’s genius.

We’re only slightly exaggerating when we
say the Reception Lounge is the greatest idea we’ve ever heard of.

The best part of this idea is that it
doesn’t have to be terribly complicated. It can be complicated, of
course – you’ll have to poll your budget and your energy to decide just how
spectacular it should be. But even a few couches and a makeshift bar will be
enough. People get tired at weddings. It’s hours and hours of ceremony, forced
socializing, and dancing. Your one problem will be when your Reception
Lounge fills up with men fleeing the dance floor and then their women come and
burn your lounge to the ground.

You can always have a second, secret lounge
area for you and your close friends and family. But if you get caught doing
that, we’ll deny knowing anything about it. In that case, you’re on your own.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Hey, you’ve been asked
to be your buddy’s Best Man at his wedding! Congratulations, it’s a thankless
job and you’ll be miserable. Whether you’re his oldest friend, his brother, or
someone the bride’s family forced upon him, you probably think your job is to
look good in a tuxedo, carry some rings around, and try not to vomit all over
everyone at the ceremony after spending the night before in some vague
debauchery you’re already imagining.

You are: So very
wrong. Well, okay, half wrong. Because you must do all of those things, plus a
few other unsexy things like helping the Groom to organize the tuxedo fittings
and the toasts and such. But that’s just the tip of this iceberg. Getting
married is serious business and you’ve just been handed a huge checklist of
things to accomplish before the big day:

1. Therapy. The Groom is going to have, on average, fifty
or sixty existential crises. These are not always the same. Aside from the old
standby anxiety about being with the same woman for the rest of his life,
there’s also: Insecurity about whether or not the bride’s family likes him,
stage fright regarding having to dance in front of everyone, body image issues
after that first tuxedo fitting, and possibly remorse over huge and complex
lies he’s told his bride-to-be, possibly regarding secret identities, previous
marriages, and love children.

2. Image Control. Whether your Groom is a wild man-child who
spends the months leading up to his wedding barely escaping arrest or a pensive
and serious young man who spends hours staring out of windows as if he imagines
he’s being filmed, your job as Best Man includes making him look good. This
might involve a few muscle relaxants and some pancake makeup on the Wedding
Day, it might involve copping to crimes you didn’t actually commit, or it might
involve outright lying to people’s faces.

3. Dance Lessons. You think you’re the first Best Man asked to
help a Groom learn steps in order to surprise his wife with his dancing
ability? You poor, innocent fool.

4. Wedding Party
Control. The Groom has other
problems, and the Maid of Honor is going to be spending a lot of time locked in
rooms with the Bride, so crowd control falls to you. You’ll be the General of
the Wedding Party, which means you get to organize everything and relay
messages from the Groom.

5. Speeches. There are a lot of speeches involved with
being a Best Man. You can go exactly two ways with your speeches: Emotional or
Funny. There is no Third Way, unless you count a hybrid of emotional and
funny, which is acceptable but very difficult as you don’t want to be perceive
as laughing about that time the Groom got hit by a car. Do not try for
Philosophical. For god’s sake don’t let your own opinions about marriage invade
your speech. Make them cry or make them laugh, and get the hell out.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

We’re all supposed to be rugged individualists in America,
so it’s sometimes amazing to me how similar most weddings are. Granted, there’s
tradition at work here, which is understandable; people like to see their new
family linked backwards in time to their old family, and the traditions
employed at most weddings serve that purpose. Still, it gets a little numbing
sometimes when you’ve been to dozens of weddings and they each follow the same
basic template.

One side effect of this, however, is that as a Groom you
know exactly what to expect when you get married. Your role is pretty clear
even if you’ve never spent a single second thinking about your own wedding.
Most men can cruise through their wedding without paying much attention. But
what do you do if your wedding is one of the few non-standard ones? Say, you
and your bride decide to get hitched on a beach instead of in a church? Here’s
a few pointers:

1. Resist pants. No one looks formal or serious in
shorts. It is impossible. The second you put on shorts, you regress in age,
dignity, and social status. So expect your bride to try to get you to wear
pants to your beach wedding. She will tell you that they will be lightweight
pants, linen, perhaps. She will tell you they will “breathe” and be cool. Do
not believe her. Cling to your shorts as if your life depends on them. If the
temperature is going to crack ninety, it probably does.

2. Have a backup plan. Hey, did you know it rains on
the beach?

3. Be prepared for witnesses. Even if you have access
to a private beach, most beaches are only private in the mysterious legal sense
that does absolutely nothing to stop weirdos and vagrants from wandering onto them.
When I got married on a beach in Hawaii a homeless man sleeping in a tent at
the tree line kept wandering out and drunkenly shouting “Congratulations!” at
the top of his voice. You have to roll with stuff like that.

4. Pick the right beach. That said, do some research
and pick a spot where there won’t be too many people. It’s one thing to have a
few curious onlookers, it’s quite another to be hit in the head by a Frisbee
just as your putting the ring on her finger, and then you have to spend the next
six hours searching the sand for the ring.

5. Fear the sun. Hey, did you know that standing for
long periods of time in the hot sun can be uncomfortable and dangerous?

One of the great things about a nonstandard wedding, though,
is the fact that not every single detail has been preplanned for you by the
Ghosts of Brides Past. There’s a lot of fun wiggle room for the wedding overall
and for you, the Groom, specifically. It’s Thunderdome out there; there are no
rules. If you’ve won the battle for No Pants mentioned above, you’re standing
on a beach in a pair of comfortable shorts and bare feet, after all, so be a
little flexible with what the Bride wants. In a very real way, you’ve already
won.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

When invited to a wedding as either a member of the bridal
party or simply a guest, there are plenty of details to go around. If you’re
single, there’s the question of a date. If you’re a member of the bridal party,
there’s the fittings and gatherings and gifts, perhaps a speech, or a
stress-inducing Dance Moment. Even a guest has to worry about what to wear,
what to buy as a gift, the sleeping arrangements, whether ‘The Robot’ has come
back into style yet. One thing no one considers, however, is dinner.

If you think that since your attendance at the reception
includes a meal dinner is solved, think again. There are numerous other things
to worry over. One, any reception worth going to starts with cocktails, and if
you’ve been sweltering away in an ill-fitting suit or tuxedo for the last few
hours you’re more than likely drinking on an empty stomach. Two, reception
dinners may vary in quality and appeal, but even the best reception meal you’ve
ever seen is going to arrive at your table lukewarm and inconsistently
seasoned, and God help you if you have a custom order. Finally, dinner arrives
in the middle of the reception for some reason, completely destroying the flow
of the evening. If you went to a club or a great party, would you pause after
two hours, return glumly to your table, and consume half a pound of prime rib,
only to return to the dance floor bloated and sweating freely? Of course you wouldn’t.

On the other hand, you can’t spend your evening drinking,
dancing, and photobombing the other tables without eating something. The
answer is right in front of you: The Cocktail Hour.

Cocktail Hours vary, of course. I’ve been to cocktail hours
with more food than a Jersey Diner, and I’ve been to cocktail hours where you
have to hunt the waiters like a Terminator in order to get a handful of cheese
puffs. In either scenario, the Cocktail Hour is where you can eat some
delicious grub before you’re too drunk and/or exhausted from doing The Robot to
think straight. Grab a drink and get in line for that carving station, start
stalking the waiters, and sample those Swedish Meatballs. This way, by the time
you have a tiny numbered card in your hand and you’re searching for your table,
you’re already sated. It’s ideal because you then spend some time sitting,
making your introductions, and digesting. By the time everyone is invited to
join the bride and groom on the dance floor, you’re ready to spend the next few
hours celebrating instead of struggling to identify the vegetables on your
plate.

Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that most people
don’t follow this advice, so be wary of being the only person on the dance
floor while every other guest is eating dinner. If you suddenly look up and
everyone is staring in horror as you do The Robot, solo, it might be time to go
take a breather.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Many men, when invited to or planning a
wedding, come up against the fact that they will be expected or at the very
least strongly urged to dance. I once worked with a curmudgeonly old man who
gruffly advised me that real men never danced. He was proud to say he
had danced only once in his life, at his own wedding. Most of us, however, lack
this kind of internal fortitude. We will, someday, have to dance in order to
please our partners.

Some men, of course, enjoy dancing, and
are even good at it. More power to them. They remain, as far as I can tell, a
minority in the world, perhaps the next step in evolution. For the rest of us,
we must arm ourselves with a clearheaded strategy for events such as weddings.
Here then, are some guidelines for groomsmen and wedding guests as the event
approaches.

First off, resign yourself to the fact
that you will, indeed, have to dance. Trust me, you will find your manhood
and/or maturity challenged if you refuse, so be prepared. This means, wear
comfortable shoes. This means, drink heavily as soon as it is socially
acceptable to do so. This means, above all, choose your moment.

The worst thing you can do is be
cajoled onto the dance floor when everyone, including you, is still sober.
Don’t be the sad soul who is forced to shuffle awkwardly and bite his lower
lip, sweating freely, aware of all the judgmental male eyes on your back. Wait,
friend, until everyone is sufficiently lubricated to regard just about anything
as a good idea. You will know the moment: The band or DJ plays the Chicken
Dance and/or The Electric Slide, and more than half the guests rush to the
floor. This is your moment: From this point on no one will remark on anything
you do. Or, possibly, remember it.

Finally, be aware of the Three Types of
Dancing Men you will encounter at weddings, and avoid them at all costs:

1. The Lesson Takers: There’s one
couple at every wedding who have spent years of their lives taking Dance
Lessons – Ballroom, Swing or, god help you, Disco. Identify these folks quickly
and stay off the dance floor when they’re out there, burning the place down
with their sexiness. You will never look good dancing next to them.

2. The Box Steppers: Usually an older
couple, these folks cannot actually dance in a technical sense, but they can
walk each other around in a stiff-armed box forever, circling the floor in
grim, robotic motion. Although they will make you look good in comparison, the
chances of whacking them in the head with your flailing limbs is high.

3. Children: At some point at every
wedding reception the kids figure out that they can do anything on the dance
floor and it is regarded with amusement and tolerance. It quickly becomes Lord
of the Flies out there. Stay seated and don’t make eye contact.

There you go. Follow these simple
guidelines and dancing need never be a worry to you again. And for heaven’s
sake resist the temptation to do The Robot.